thoroughbreds

Oaklawn Park is promoting Zack Gillham to Vice President of Racing & Wagering, while Jason Milligan will assume the role of Director of Racing, the track said via a press release on Thursday morning. In his expanded position, Gillham will oversee all aspects of Oaklawn's racing and sports wagering operations. A member of the Hot Springs team for over eight years, he most recently served as Executive Director of Wagering. Milligan, the former Vice President of Racing, has been with Oaklawn's equine operations for the past 28 years.

7th-Mth, $47K, Msw, 3yo/up, 1 1/16mT, 3:56 p.m. ET. The holiday card by the Jersey Shore includes first-time starter DIRAND (Ire) (Sottsass {Fr}). Owned by Peter Brant and Tony Shafrazian, the 3-year-old is out of Unaided (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who White Birch acquired for €1,250,000 at the 2019 Arqana December Mixed Sale while in-foal to No Nay Never. This dam is also responsible for champion turf female & GI TVG Breeders' Cup Mile heroine Uni (GB) (Medaglia d'Oro). Dirand is trained by Chad Brown. From the same shedrow, Investment Mandate...

The 1,116-page bill the House passed early Thursday morning could have a profound effect on the horse racing industry. Currently, horse owners can only write off 40 percent of the cost of a race horse once it enters service. Under the Trump bill, the write-off, known as bonus depreciation, will be 100% for five years. With the bill now headed to the Senate, there is some speculation that the 100 percent deduction will be made permanent. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased bonus depreciation to 100% until...

The two racetrack jobs that Crystal Conning currently has can be broken down simply. In one, her goal is to pick winners. In the other, it's to ride them. On Monday, her professional worlds will collide when the Monmouth Park paddock analyst rides Like a Saltshaker (Peace and Justice) in the second race at the Jersey Shore track in between TV appearances. "I think it's going to be cool to ride a race at Monmouth Park," said Conning, who hails from Melbourne, Australia. "I've been here three summers working and...

They had grown up together, the boy and his horse. Their bond was innate. In fact, he has been told that his mother was on horseback when her waters broke. That was how it was, up in the mountains. Most people couldn't afford cars, certainly not the type that might cope with those roads. "We lived in one of the most desolate villages in Puerto Rico," Alberto Rullan recalls. "My dad had a small farm: coffee, bananas, plantains. And every night, I would round up the cattle into pens. If...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has rolled out post times for the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, which will be held at Saratoga Race Course from Wednesday, June 4 through Sunday, June 8, the track said in a Friday release. Post time for the 10-race programs on Wednesday, June 4 and Thursday, June 5 as well as Sunday, June 8 is 12:40 p.m. (All times Eastern) with admission gates open to the public at 11 a.m. The 14-race program on Friday, June 6 will feature a post time...

The 40th Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) National Awards Dinner will be held on Saturday, Sept. 6 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, Kentucky, the group said via a press release on Friday. Hosted by FanDuel's Scott Hazelton, the event will feature a more informal feel in terms of recommended "blue jeans, boots, and bling" attire, open seating dining, signature Bluegrass music, and a Kentucky bourbon experience. As part of the anniversary, cartoonist and TDN contributor Remi Bellocq created a signature illustration focusing on the theme of "Cheers to 40 Years"...

The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation will honor media personality Lindsay Czarniak at its annual Fashionable Fillies Luncheon at Saratoga National Golf Club on Monday, Aug. 4, according to a press release from the organization on Friday. Czarniak, who has served as a host, anchor and sideline reporter for multiple networks, is a Thoroughbred owner through A Stake in Stardom, an initiative of America's Best Racing. The luncheon has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist those in need in the racing industry. Click here for tickets.

After he crossed the wire first aboard Journalism (Curlin) in the GI Preakness Stakes, jockey Umberto Rispoli planned to take a few days off and bask in what was the biggest win of his career. Instead, he has found himself in the middle of an ugly controversy involving his ride and the bumping incident with Flavien Prat, who was aboard 'TDN Rising Star' Goal Oriented (Not This Time). The two banged into each other in upper stretch and impeded the Steve Asmussen-trained Clever Again (American Pharaoh). While some people have...

Trainer Marcus Vitali, who has not started a horse at a NYRA track since 2021, will make his  return to the Big Apple Friday when he sends out Classy Lass (Classic Empire) in Friday's fifth race at the Belmont At The Big A meet. The race is a $17,500 claimer on the dirt. The Daily Racing Form's David Grening was first with the story. Vitali, who has numerous violations on his record, reached an accord with NYRA July 1, 2022 in which he agreed to a suspension. But NYRA was...

With nothing off the table, MGISW Fierceness (City of Light) could face stablemate GISW Mindframe (Constitution) in next month's GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Handicap, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. Fierceness worked Thursday over Saratoga Race Course's Oklahoma dirt training track in preparation for what is shaping up to be a titanic race during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course. The champion colt breezed in company with GSP Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso) through a half-mile in 49.85 seconds, according to NYRA clockers. It marked the pair's second...

No doubt about it, the folks at Hagyards seem to have found themselves a promising intern. Still early days, mind. Richard Holder has only been there 53 years. In fact, Dr. Holder believes himself the first beneficiary of an official internship at the storied Lexington firm, founded in 1876, albeit Dr. William McGee himself was evidently granted a similar opening, less formally, by Dr. Charles Hagyard in 1940. (By 1953 the firm was renamed Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Associates.) In either case, safe to say that the internship model started pretty well. Holder...